Our colleagues Jeff Horwitz and Catherine Blunt have spent months investigating something really troubling,

the spread of content that sexualizes children.

It happens all over social media, but they took a closer look at how it happens on Facebook and

Instagram, two platforms owned by Meta. We talked to Jeff about it.

We have been looking at how Meta recommends content and how it builds pernicious

communities. In particular a community focused on the sexualization of children.

Those people aren't a natural community, but Meta's products kind of build them into that via recommendations of accounts you

should follow or groups you should join. Do you have a sense of the number of people who have been involved in these types of groups?

I can tell you what Meta-employees have told us, which is that it's in the millions.

In June, Jeff and Catherine published a story

showing that Instagram's algorithms were connecting and promoting a network of accounts,

accounts that were openly devoted to underage sex content.

Meta took immediate action to address the problems.

It set up a child safety task force,

pulled down hashtags related to pedophilia,

and it reviewed its content moderation practices.

But as Jeff and Catherine found, the problems are far from being solved.

Welcome to the Journal, our show about money, business, and power.

I'm Jessica Mendoza.

It's Thursday, December 7th.

Coming up on the show, how Meta's platforms recommend content related to

sexualizing children. Do you?

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